Times Infinity
by jcforever19
Summary: Jimmy Neutron is a geeky outcast. Cindy Vortex is smart, popular, and vying for a spot at Harvard University. She's never even had a conversation with Jimmy until the day they are assigned to be lab partners in AP Chemistry. Their unlikely partnership brings them closer and closer, with tragic results. AU. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone! **

**I'm excited to share my new story. The plot is actually based on an amazing movie I discovered in 2014 called _Keith_, starring Jesse McCartney and Elisabeth Harnois. (The movie itself is based on a short story by Ron Carlson.) Keith is a great indie romance/coming of age film. **

**_Keith_ is about a seventeen year old named Natalie. Natalie is a very academically and athletically driven student. In the second semester of her senior year, she is partnered with a 'truck geek' named Keith Zetterstrom in AP Chemistry. The two strike up an unlikely and rather tragic friendship.**

**This story applies the plot of _Keith_ to characters in the Jimmy Neutron universe. There are a few times when I used dialogue directly from the film, although this was mostly just memorable one-liners.**

**This story is named after a song from the _Keith_ soundtrack called Times Infinity by Mexicolas. The soundtrack and the song are both excellent and I highly recommend you listen to them!**

**To set the scene- t****his is an AU in which Jimmy and Cindy never really took to each other during their middle school or high school years and therefore, never really had any of the adventures they had together in the TV show or the movie. The gang is non-existent, and Jimmy is a bit of a loner.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Jimmy Neutron and affiliated characters, nor do I own _Keith_.**

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><p>On the first day of AP Chemistry, Cindy Vortex took her customary seat right in the front row. Thankfully, it was the last class of the day. She took out her mechanical pencils and calculator, arranging them in a straight line next to her textbook. She glanced at the doorway out of the corner of her eye and sighed. Just another semester to go before she was off at an Ivy League— and not just any Ivy League— Harvard. But until then, she had to slog harder than she'd ever slogged in her entire high school career. There were karate competitions to win, clubs to lead, homework to finish, honor society projects to slave through. But it was worth it.<p>

* * *

><p>At approximately 2:15, students started pouring in. Most of them took seats towards the back or the middle. Only Libby Folfax joined Cindy in the first row. Libby was always dressed to the T. She could make the funkiest sweater-skirt combinations look marvelous, and her hair was never styled the same way for more than two days in a row. Today, she'd chosen to wear a magenta cable knit dress with dark green stockings. Her hair was tied up in a bun, and secured with a large scrunchie. Libby's bold aesthetic stood in contrast to Cindy's own muted, pastel palette of clothing. However, the duo's style differences had never mattered too much insofar as their friendship was concerned (although Libby secretly hoped one day Cindy would drop her librarian look for something less...boring). The two had been best friends since elementary school, and they'd been there for each other through good times and bad. However, the stress of junior and senior year had taken a toll on their closeness. In a serious effort to re-strengthen their friendship, Libby had taken Chemistry upon Cindy's insistence. Libby, while smart, was not as academically inclined as her companion. She much preferred the performing arts to molecular equations. Cindy had convinced her that the two could work on lab assignments together— it would give them time that they hadn't had for quite a while.<p>

Silence fell upon the room of chattering teenagers as a middle-aged man in an argyle sweater and a pair of black slacks entered the room carrying a clipboard. He cleared his throat and stared at the tired teenagers seated in front of him. "Welcome to AP Chem. I'm Mr. Anderson. We're going to start by discussing lab methods. You'll have the same lab partners for the whole semester." Libby and Cindy shared a look and smiled.

"I will be assigning you all partners." The class let out a collective groan. Cindy and Libby shared a look of horror.

"Folfax, Stevens. Wellesley, Dulles. Neutron, Vortex. Heinz, Smith.."

Libby paired off with a short boy with blonde hair. Cindy glanced around. Of all the people to be paired with, she'd ended up with Neutron. There was little to be said for him. She'd seen him in the hallways every so often, but he'd never stood out in her memory. He was somewhat of a loner, and had oddly styled hair. Neither had he or his two strange friends ever been on her radar. All she really knew about him was that he liked to invent things. More often than not, these inventions backfired and made the front page of the Retroville Journal when they cut someone's hair off, or rendered someone temporarily invisible.

She tapped her foot irritably. Everyone had already found their partner and had started to set up their equipment at their lab stations in the back of the room. Everyone except for her, that was. Where was this damn partner of hers?

Suddenly, a loud crash punctuated the air. Everyone turned their heads towards the front of the room. A few kids pointed and muttered, and Cindy's cheeks reddened as she stared at him. _She would_ get stuck working with the weirdest kid in school. Jimmy Neutron stood panting in the doorway, hands covered in soot, and white shirt stained with grease. He was wearing some kind of jetpack.

"Neutron, you're working with Vortex." Anderson grunted, barely looking up from his grading.

Jimmy made his way over to Cindy. His filthy t-shirt and jeans only served to highlight how impeccably dressed Cindy was. Not a hair out of place, Cindy always took care to make sure she looked prim and proper. Her light green sweater and blue jeans were meticulously pressed, and she wore her hair in a ponytail tied tightly with a light pink ribbon.

"Your side job as a mechanic can wait, Neutron." She spat, leading the way to their table in the very back of the room.

Jimmy glared at her. His shaggy brown hair swept over his brilliant blue eyes. Cindy found herself gazing at him for a second longer than strictly necessary. If her memory served her correctly, he'd taken to a fudge shaped hairdo for most of middle school. However, it seemed he'd lost it now for a less candy-inspired look. He wasn't even as short as she remembered. He'd leveled out over the years.

"And what's your occupation? Queen of the chem lab? " He remarked bitterly.

"Just don't come in late again. I can't afford an absent partner." She started to set up the test tubes in their holders, washing them out one by one.

"Just why is that, your royal highness?" He sneered, arranging bottles of acid along the corner of the table.

"First off, don't call me that again. Second of all, it's because I care about my future."

"And what does this future entail, Miss Vortex?" He asked mockingly.

"Oh I don't know...graduating top of my class this year and every year after in college until I can start my own firm. Or at least work for some bigshot corporation."

He smirked.

"What?" She rested her hands on her hips.

"Really? Harvard?"

She rolled her eyes.

"Yes. Harvard. I'm on the waitlist. So if I mess anything up this semester, I'm done for, and so are you."

"Calm down, Vortex."

"Calmness is only for people like you who can afford to sit back and—"

"Who says I'm not just as smart as you?" He countered.

"I have the highest GPA in the school."

"Check again, Vortex."

"Are you suggesting you have the highest GPA?" She raised her eyebrows.

"I'm not suggesting anything."

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><p>After class, Cindy approached her teacher privately. She wondered how to broach it to him. She finally decided to just take the straightforward approach.<p>

"He's insufferable, Mr. Anderson. Please give me someone else, anyone else."

"Ms. Vortex, you have only worked with him for one day. Surely you can try a little harder than that."

"He doesn't take anything seriously! And I mean, not to be corny but we lack...chemistry."

Mr. Anderson gave a half smile.

"Try to make it work, Cindy. You're both very capable students. That's all I will say on the matter. Good day."

Cindy stared in disbelief at her teacher as she filed out.

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><p>"So what did Anderson say, girl?"<p>

Cindy shook her head in utter defeat. "I have to continue working with Neutron." The blonde set down her lunch tray beside her friend at their usual table.

"So there's no way we can work together and dump Neutron with that kid I was assigned to?"

Cindy shook her head. "Anderson isn't sympathetic."

Libby groaned. "You mean to tell me we're stuck with losers as lab partners for a whole semester?"

"At least Stevens is normal. Neutron is…" She struggled for a word to describe him.

"An outcast?" Libby motioned to him. He was sitting in a far corner of the cafeteria, joined only by a red headed boy wearing a pair of pinstripe pants.

"You might say that." Cindy picked at her limp salad.

"Let me know how working with the dweeb goes for you. I know you'll find a way to make it work. You sort of have to." Libby offered, discarding the crust of a piece of pizza on her paper plate.

"Yeah, I have to get it into Neutron's head that there's a lot at stake for me. And he mentioned that I might not be top rank anymore."

"What?" Libby looked at Cindy incredulously. "No way that's true, Cin. You're the smartest kid in this whole school. You've got to find out who's threatening your spot at the top. it's not Neutron, right?"

Cindy scoffed. "No way it's Neutron. He barely helped with our first lab. And the only time you see his name in the newspaper is when he blows something up."

The two laughed in unison. "Yeah, who are we kidding? This is _Neutron_." Cindy rolled her eyes.

"Bighead aside, you might want to clear your night for the big party Nick's hosting. "

"I completely forgot about it, Libs!"

"Nick totally wants you there, girl. You can't _not_ come."

"How can I come? I have this stupid lab report to finish on top of all my other AP work."

"You need to be there. Work on finishing your homework during your free period."

"I'll try my best." Cindy resigned to work extra hard to complete her work. She deserved the break, much as she was averse to these rather witless parties.

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><p>It was a little windier than normal for Texas, but it remained pleasant that night.<p>

Jimmy alighted in his hover-car not far from where the party was. The parties generally happened in a giant secluded space on the far side of the woods. Everyone went to these parties. Everyone except for Jimmy, that was. Jimmy much preferred to spend his nights working on his inventions. But some nights, when he just needed some clarity and time alone with himself, he would park his hover-car at a safe distance, from across the creek. Paper lanterns were strung haphazardly between trees, casting shadows across the grass. Vapid pop music echoed across the green. Jimmy regarded the parties with a sort of disgust for the shallow frivolity of adolescence. At times, he counted himself lucky for being less than welcome at these gatherings. At other times, he wondered what it would have been like if he had just been a normal teen— a teen who went to wild parties, got plastered on cheap beer, and gossiped about trifling issues like Nissa's hair extensions or Brittany's brief fling with Nick.

No, he was glad to opt out of that kind of a insipidly foolish existence. It was lonely at times…but that came with not being a part of the high school food chain at all...


	2. Chapter 2

"Miss Vortex, we cannot divulge that information."

"But I need to know who's beating me out. I'm on the waitlist for Harvard and it's important that I scout out my competition. " Cindy had driven in to school early to try to explain to the school secretary and her guidance counsellor that it was essential she know who was the class topper. She wasn't having much luck.

"Miss Vortex, we simply cannot give out individual school rankings. It's against school policy. That's all there is to it."

Cindy groaned in frustration, turned around and stormed out the door, only to ram into someone. She straightened her shirt out and looked up at a pair of twinkling blue eyes. Immediately, her blood pressure spiked.

"What are you doing here, Neutron?"

"I have a first name, Cindy." He sighed and slung his backpack on one shoulder. He was wearing a pair of worn out jeans and a dumb red t-shirt with a yellow atom imprinted on the front. She glared at him."But I've inferred from your eternal scowl that you won't use it." He cocked his head to one side. "Classic TGFY."

"Please enlighten me as to what that means in nerd speak?" She raised an eyebrow.  
>"Too good for you." He smirked and headed into the office leaving her at a loss for words.<p>

* * *

><p>Later that day, Cindy trudged into chemistry class. She tossed her bag on the floor next to the ventilator and threw on a pair of goggles. The assignment had been left out on the tables for everyone to attempt. As was apparently customary, Neutron was late— although notably less dirty than the last time she'd seen him in class a few days ago.<p>

"Glad to see you're here, Einstein. I could hardly bear doing this assignment without you," she remarked snidely as he slipped into his seat across from her.

"The ice queen has emotions?" He feigned surprise at her comment.

"You might want to take a mental note- I prefer her royal majesty." She started to work on mixing solutions. He took out a pencil from his bag.

"Well, speaking of preferences, I _love_ it when people use my first name." He twiddled around with his pencil.

"Well?" She gave him a questioning look. "Are you going to start balancing the equations? Or are you going to sit there like a dumbstruck idiot for the next hour?"

"Vortex, you really need to take it easy."

"In case you forgot Neutron, I'm on the waitlist for—"

"Harvard." He chimed in amusedly. "Yes, I'm perfectly aware, as is the entire school."

"Where did you apply, Neutron? Community college?" She snickered.

"Nowhere."

"Impossible. Even you're not that—"

"Not everyone goes to college, y'know. it's just not for some people." He shrugged.

"So what are your plans after graduation then? Hopefully they don't involve blowing up the town." She snickered to herself.

He gazed at her, all traces of his previous seriousness gone, a sudden whimsicality lightening up his eyes.

"The sky's the limit, really."

"That's great Neutron. Or it would be if this was some sort of Lifetime movie." She fanned herself and muttered, "Oh man, that's a good one."

He shrugged and looked at her amicably. "Who's to say it isn't?" A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"So you're really not going to college then? Why even bother taking an AP class then, Neutron?"

"I have my reasons."

"Care to share?" She prodded, squeezing liquid out of a tiny dropper into a beaker.

"Not particularly."

"Okay, suit yourself.

_You think I won't figure out? I'm best friends with Libby Folfax, and she has dirt on everyone in this town. _

Suddenly, she seemed to realize he'd been sitting idly for a good portion of class.

"Do you plan on helping at all?"

He gave her a lopsided grin. "The real question here is whether you're planning on helping me."

"What are you talking about, Neutron?" She gave an exasperated sigh. She was starting to tire of his antics.

"You seem pretty smart. Maybe you can help me out with something."

"Maybe you could finish the lab questions," She cheekily suggested.

"Like I said Vortex, you need to relax." He frowned before he turned around and fished in his bag for a few sheets of paper. He handed them to her.

"You finished the lab report?" Cindy's eyes lit up in utter shock. Jimmy didn't say a word. She looked over it. Formatted properly, questions all in order, and their names both at the top of the page.

"This is due in three days." She said. He didn't reply. "How could you finish the lab before we even started the actual experiment?"

"Not the important questions, Cindy. Now that I've freed up your night, you can do me a favor and help me out with something."

"Now wait just a minute—" She set the sheet down on the table.

"Don't worry. No one will even see us together, Vortex."

"That's not what I'm concerned about—" Her cheeks reddened as she told an obvious lie.

"Like hell you aren't." He said, a bitter note resounding in his voice. "But you owe me."  
>"I didn't ask for you to finish the report on your own, Neutron."<p>

"Either you hand that in and spend a few hours helping me out, or you slave away at it for hours tonight only to get a fraction of the grade we're going to receive—"

"Why are you doing all this?" She gave him a puzzled look, taking her goggles off. He mirrored her actions and removed his goggles.

"In the fifth grade, you were Lady Macbeth in the school play."

Her lips recoiled in surprise. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"I was a stagehand. I helped build the set."

"I don't remember that." She scrunched her eyes in concentration as she tried to remember the play.

"Of course you don't, Vortex." He laughed dryly to himself. "Queens never remember the little people."

"Excuse me while I cry for you and your sad little paint buckets, Nerdtron."

"You should." He laughed again, this time standing up.

"Where are you going?" He snatched the report from her side of the table. "Hey!"

"Meet me in front of your house at 6pm."

"You know where I live?" She looked at him quizzically.

"You _don't_ know where I live?" He nodded his head incredulously.

He grabbed his bag, upped and left. Mr. Anderson gave Cindy a sharp glance before returning to grading his reports.

Cindy sat there for a few seconds, speechless. It had to be him. Jimmy Neutron was the student beating her out for top spot. How was that even possible? How was she sure of anything anymore? That lab report had been pretty damn thorough…clearly he was capable. Then why was he skipping out on college? She gazed out the window. She'd find out, soon enough.


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you to everyone who has been reading and leaving comments on this story! I really appreciate it. I hope I'm doing this movie justice given that it is one of my favorites. :) Putting a JN spin on it has been very fun so far! Onwards!**

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><p>After class, Cindy caught up with Libby.<p>

"I'm not even going to ask about Nerdtron." Libby ventured.

Cindy merely shrugged.

"Look forget Neutron, there's another party tonight. And you had a great time with Nick last week—"

"I know Libby, but I sort of have to meet Neutron tonight. He finished the lab report so—" Cindy shrugged tentatively. The having fun with Nick part of her statement was a tad bit questionable, but she wasn't about to correct Libby.

"Say what?" Libby poised her hand on her hip.

"I was just as shocked as you. Turns out Neutron is really damn smart."

"So it _is_ him stealing your coveted top spot?"

"I don't know for sure, but I think so."

"Well girl, do what you have to. I'll lie to everyone about why you couldn't make it."

"Migraine?" Libby nodded.

Cindy smiled. "Thanks Libs. I know I can always count on you."

* * *

><p>Cindy returned home at five thirty after a tai-chi session. She was shaping up for her last major tournament of the year. Practices often left her tired these days. She settled into a pair of yoga pants and a sweatshirt, shaking her hair out of its usual tight ponytail.<p>

A few minutes after six, she stood out on her front porch. Much to her surprise he was already out there.

"You're late." He remarked, brushing his messy hair out of his eyes.

"You're late to class everyday, so I figure you don't have much invested in punctuality." She shot back, annoyed already.

"That's because class isn't important."

"I still don't get it. Why take an AP class?"

"All in due time, dear Cynthia." He motioned to her to follow him.

"Where are we going and what are we doing exactly, Neutron?"

"Patience isn't your virtue is it?" He chuckled.

"Do you have to speak in riddles like you're Socrates or something?" He didn't reply and simply led her down the street.

He stopped a few houses down from her own and led her into someone's backyard. Cindy followed him nervously. "Trespassing isn't my idea of a fun night, Neutron."

He turned back abruptly. "I thought you were smarter than that, Cindy. This is where I live." He quickly snapped back around and started walking faster towards a little tin shack structure.

Cindy was fixed to the spot. _He lived in her neighborhood and she'd never known?_

She ran to catch up to him. "We're neighbors?"

"I believe so, Cindy." He gave her a smile and plucked a hair from his head. She watched enthralled as he held up the hair to a security system installed on the front of the mini tin shack. "Identity confirmed. Welcome Jimmy."

"Thanks Vox." He muttered, opening the door. Cindy followed him in. Suddenly, the two were sucked down an orange tube. Cindy let out a scream before she finally plummeted onto a dusty old mattress. He landed on it a few seconds after her and stood up immediately to dust himself off. "Neutron, where in hell are we?"

He offered her a hand, eyes glimmering with excitement once more.

"Why do you have to be so hostile all the time?"

Cindy took his outstretched hand and helped herself up.

"This is my laboratory."

Cindy glanced at the giant computer screen to her left and the tables full of screws, nuts, bolts, circuits, and filled beakers. She did a double take when she heard him. She'd seen his inventions a few times- prime example being his jetpack, which often malfunctioned, much to the chagrin of the students of Retroville High. But she'd never really imagined him taking his inventions so seriously as to have his own lab.

"What?"

"This is my lab. Where I conduct experiments and build things."

"How is it even possible for someone our age to have a laboratory?" Her mouth hung open in shock.

"An IQ of 210 will do it."

"What- 210? And how the heck do you fund this? "

"I sell my work to NASA and other big science organizations. But I work on some inventions that aren't for profit. That's sort of where you're going to come in handy, Cindy."

"I don't know much about electrical engineering or mechanics." Suddenly, she felt intimidated. Cindy's strengths had always lain in the liberal arts. She was versatile, of course, and could handle advanced calculus and even some quantum physics conceptually, but her fortes were characterized by abstractions. Where math and science were more practical fields of study, things like poetry and sociology were more up to interpretation. She much preferred Keats to titration, in that sense.

"Something tells me you'd be good at it." He flashed her a wide toothed grin and she was taken aback by the slight turn of her stomach.

"Why me, Neutron?"

"We're also going to work on your patience." He laughed.

Cindy walked up to one of the tables. A number of gadgets sat on the tabletop. She turned to him, eyes bright with curiousness. "May I?" She held up a remote control looking device. He nodded, amused. "Be careful." He warned.

"What is this?" She brushed her fingers over the colored buttons.

"That's my shrink ray."

"Can I try it?" She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and looked at him expectantly.

He gently guided her hand to the correct grip. Cindy shivered in spite of herself. She pointed it at a discarded pizza box on the floor. Pressing the red button, she was able to shrink it considerably.

She let out a cry of surprise. "This is amazing, Jimmy!"

His head perked up at the use of his first name. "I mean, Neutron." She added, quietly.

"That one's from last year though. I took a…break…from inventing things for a year. I've built things before that one though. I was working on a time box and a chrome arch in middle school although I never quite figured out the kinks. I have a working hover car in the garage, that's probably my best work. That, and my hypno-beam." His eyes lit up as he went through his inventions.

"You have a hover car? And a time box? But…how?" She stammered.

"I know you have me pegged as a loser." She opened her mouth to protest, but he held up a hand to stop her.

That's not true." The words escaped her lips before she could control herself.

"It's just—" She looked around her, still astonished by the power of his genius.

"Why hide all of this away?"

"Cindy-"

"Kids would think you were so cool if you told them about all of these inventions. And the Ivy Leagues— the Ivy Leagues couldn't possibly turn away someone like you."

He remained silent, looking at her. His sapphire eyes betrayed a deep disappointment or some deep pain. But before she could say anything else, he turned away. "I don't need people. And I don't need to go to college. College.." It seemed he was having difficulty spitting it all out. "College isn't for everyone, Cindy."

"But if you only applied yourself—now I know you're not the failure the newspaper makes you out to be!"

"Thanks for the encouragement—"

"Damn it Neutron, you know what I'm saying. I know you're the kid with the highest GPA in the our year. You're the one beating me out."

A flash of anger passed through his eyes.

"I was just kidding, Vortex. You're top pick for Harvard, don't worry."

"So you're just going to let all of this go to waste? You're wasting your potential?"

"None of this is going to waste, Vortex." His voice assumed a previously unheard stern tone.

"Whatever, Neutron. What's the real reason I'm here?"

His face brightened. "Finally, you stop the interrogations."

"Ha ha. Very funny."

"You're going to help me build my best invention yet."

"And what might that be, Dr. Jekyll?"

Jimmy ignored her barb and unveiled a giant blueprint. Cindy observed at it for a few seconds. Meticulously drawn sketches of a dog, lists of various metals, a few mathematical equations, and diagrams of circuitry.

"I'm helping you build—"

"A multifunctional robot dog."

"Are you so socially inept that you have to invent a robot to give you company?"

His face clouded over in some unexplainable dark emotion. She immediately understood that she'd gone a step too far. "I didn't mean it." She offered, patting his hand gently.

He didn't say anything for a second, and closed his eyes.

"Jimmy?"

His eyes fluttered open.

"I'm sorry."

"The queen's getting off her high horse to apologize?"

"It's just a lot to take in."

He nodded. "We're going to look for scrap metals tonight."

"Okay." She suppressed all the questions she had and followed him to the garage. It was a little chilly. He flipped on the lights and immediately, Cindy's eyes travelled to the hover-car. It could comfortably seat five and it had an array of buttons, levers, and controls. There were also a plethora of lights flashing across the dashboard.

He climbed inside and motioned for Cindy to do the same. She sat beside him as he turned the key in the ignition. The gas tank read as full. He pressed a red button in the centre of a steering wheel. The hover-car began to float slowly upwards. Cindy stared in awe at the ground below her as it rose higher and higher. He maneuvered it out of the garage and used the button on his key to shut the garage door behind him. They ascended farther into the sky and Cindy found herself at a serious loss of words. "Ji-Neutron, this is incredible." A slight coo erupted from her lips as he expertly turned the car through the atmosphere.

"You can call me Jimmy, you know."

"Where's the fun in that?" She smirked.

He shook his head. He was quickly finding out just how stubborn and headstrong Cindy could be.

"How long did this take you?"

"The better part of seven months, I believe." He replied nonchalantly.

"Seven months? This would take seasoned scientists years or even decades." She couldn't conceal the note of incredulity in her voice.

"Are you saying I'm not a seasoned scientist?" He asked teasingly.

"I'm still praying we don't fall out of the sky sitting in this thing."

""The karate master herself is afraid?"" He grinned mischievously.

"I'm not afraid." She protested, crossing her arms over her chest. However, her shaking fingers gave her away.

"How do you know I do karate?" She gaped in sudden realization. "It's not like we've ever hung out or anything."

"Cindy, you're all this dinky town's really got in the way of talent."

"There's you."

"I don't count." He waved his hand dismissively.

"Of course you do."

"Don't change the subject."

He tapped the steering wheel.

"What is it you want to be, Cindy?"

"A lawyer."

"Why Harvard?"

"Should be obvious Neutron. Harvard's the best school there is—great faculty, great sports programs, great professors."

"Well, you get what you pay for."  
>"Actually, I might be offered partial scholarship if I get in."<p>

"Can I guess the real story there?"

"What real story?"

"Your mother tried to get in. Rejected or waitlisted and then rejected. Now she lives vicariously through you. You're living out her dream. She pushes you into all of your extracurriculars. She monitors your every move. You've been taught to scout out and associate with the select few she deems worthy. You sort of hate it but you love the attention and fame."

She regarded him with a half angry, half aghast look on her face.

"I guessed right?" He offered, quietly.

The hover car alighted on the ground near the local dump.

"I'm not saying anything." She grumbled.

"All right!" He jumped enthusiastically out of the hover car, shaking off the previously somber turn their interactions had taken. "Let's find some scrap metal!"

* * *

><p>For the next half hour, the two collected two boxes full of various metal pieces. Jimmy shoved the boxes in the backseat and they took off again, this time in silence.<p>

"Meet you again tomorrow at six?"

"I don't know, Neutron." She evaded his gaze.

'Oh come on, Vortex. Do you really want to spend another night with Nick and those other inane halfwits?" Cindy bit her lip. It wasn't like she was deeply fond of these parties, but that didn't necessarily meant she'd rather spend that time with Neutron instead. She settled on questioning him before offering a definite response.

"How do you know I go to —"

"Everyone goes to those dumb parties. And it's not like you don't know who's dating who already, or who can down the most shots by the end of the night."

"Neutron—"

"Unless you're dating that ignoramus—" He frowned.

"I am not dating Nick." Her nostrils flared in anger and her whole face went red.

"Then meet me by the lab tomorrow at six."

She opened her mouth to argue, but he silenced her.

"You can do so much better, Vortex."

He studied her for a moment, contemplating her ambiguous expression, before he disappeared in his hover car.

Cindy peered after him, breathing in the cool night air. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but being with Neutron made her feel strange. Not necessarily in a bad way. But there was something deep within her that had shifted…transformed…


	4. Chapter 4

**Just a heads-up: updates will take a little longer as the story progresses and the situation gets more and more complex. I tried to focus more on emotions in this chapter. Hope you enjoy it! As I said before, thank you for all the comments and story follows thus far! Feel free to let me know how I can make this better in a review! I welcome feedback/criticism.**

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><p>Cindy woke up the following morning to find sunlight streaming through her curtains. She regarded her room as she lay back on her satin pillows. The room had been painted pink when she was in the third grade. Photos of her with Libby, Britney, and Nissa covered the walls. Her eyes fell on a box of photos that lay on the topmost shelf of her bookcase. She tumbled out of bed and reached for it. She managed to clasp it in her hands and bring it back to bed with her. Taking the lid off and setting it aside, she carefully lifted out the photos in the box. It had been ages since she'd last taken a look at these. She combed through pictures of barbie dolls, awkward middle school dances, and baby pictures, until she found what she was really looking for. She held up a frayed polaroid from the third grade play. There she was in her sparkling red dress at a rehearsal. And there <em>he<em> was, scurrying in the background to fix the set. He wasn't much more than a blur in the background. She jumped out of bed once more and pinned the photo to her bulletin board.

"What are you doing, Cynthia?" A deep voice resounded from the doorway. Cindy turned around to find her mother standing in her silk robe and tight bun.

"Just looking at some old pictures."

"You haven't got time for such frivolous pursuits, Cynthia."

Suddenly, her discerning gaze landed on the picture Cindy had pinned. "Your third grade play. You almost ended up getting cast as a witch."

Cindy frowned. "But I didn't."

Cindy's mother shrugged. "Who's that in the background?"

"Nobody important. Just a stagehand."

Cindy's mother nodded. "Well, Cynthia, I expect you on your morning run a little early today. You'll need to shape up for that big karate tournament in Houston."

"Yes, mother."

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><p>The remainder of the day continued rather uneventfully. Cindy went on her morning run, and followed it up with a two hour study session for her AP Calculus test, and then took a ten minute break to eat lunch before she went back to finishing homework assignments and emailing groups of students about club meetings.<p>

At exactly six pm, she headed downstairs and out of the house. Just as she was putting on her shoes, her mother caught her. "Just where are you going, young lady?"

"To meet Libby. I need a break."

"Did you finish all your flashcards? And your-"

"I finished everything, mother. I even finished the essay due on Thursday."

"And the lab report?"

"It's already done and handed in."

"You're unusually productive." Her mother remarked.

"Yes, well that tends to happen when I'm locked in the house and forced to work like a donkey."

"Good heavens Cynthia, you know I make you study hard for your own good."

Cindy didn't say a word.

"I guess you deserve a short break. But don't be out more than two hours."

Her words fell on lost ears as Cindy made her way out. She ran down the street to the lab.

"You're late again." Jimmy observed, not even bothering to look up at her.

"Deal with it, Neutron." Cindy grumbled. She had no desire to explain to him what had delayed her.

"So what are we up to today?"

"Just a little excursion down to the creek."

"Aren't we working on the dog?" She questioned, flipping her hair to one side.

"Nope. Not tonight. Besides, I spent all of today working on him."

"It's a him?" He nodded a yes.

He motioned to the hover car, which was already poised outside the lab, waiting for the two of them to climb in.

"Get in."

She followed him in and sat down in the passenger seat.

As he drove overhead, they sat in silence. She contemplated him quietly. He had a constellation of tiny freckles dotting the space between his ear and cheek. His eyes had deep bags beneath them, and his skin was very pale. He gripped the steering wheel tightly, as if their lives depended on it.

"Jimmy?" Her voice echoed very softly.

"Mm?" He continued staring straight ahead.

"What do you really want to do? Y'know? After high school ends?"

Jimmy's sapphire eyes shone with some unspeakable agony. But as soon as the look came, it disappeared.

"I've always wanted to go on a road trip in the hover car." He offers, still regarding the sky ahead of him.

"Where'd you think you'll go?" He couldn't understand the unusual gentleness in her tone…but he didn't wish to fight her over it. He certainly wasn't complaining about her sudden decreased hostility.

He finally permitted himself to regard Cindy. She looked…lovely, if he had to admit it to himself. Her twin emerald eyes glowed with a rare sort of vigor he'd been loath to find in anyone else. Her golden hair cascaded down her velour pullover in easygoing waves. She was wearing a tint of lipgloss. She posed the most perplexing of paradoxes— he hated her, no doubt—and yet, there was something far beyond that hatred that had started to settle in his blood…making him duly uncomfortable and angry…

"Jimmy?" She prodded.

He shook his head and collected his thoughts.

"I'm thinking a scientific tour of Europe."

"_You_ would." She grinned. "I bet you're hoping to visit the apple tree Newton sat under in hopes you come up with something nearly as groundbreaking as the concept of gravity."

The two drove in relative silence until Jimmy finally steered the hover-car downwards, touching down on a patch of dry dirt.

Cindy's eyes lit up in realization as she regarded the lights and silhouettes across the water. "That's where Nick's parties always are."

He supported his head with his arm. "Never been on that side." A melancholy air pigmented his words.

Cindy studied the far off figures in wonder. "Never been on this side." She mused.

She turned her attention back to him. His jaw was clenched in a frown. He seemed so sad tonight, so crestfallen.

She wanted to make him feel a little less downcast. She gave him a tender smile. "You were right, y'know. You're really not missing much."

"I thought you were the queen." He mocked.

"I don't know." She shrugged her shoulders. "I mean it's fun sometimes. But I've been thinking..."

He nodded slowly. "It's just all so— routine down there. The drinking, the womanizing, the gossiping."

She chuckled to herself. "They live and die by that crap down there."

They were silent for a few minutes. Cindy felt a latent peace radiating from within. She felt so tranquil…so at ease with everything. She took a deep breath before she made a concession.  
>"Down here, it's just—I mean, why did I ever care?" She tried to sort through her emotions, talking out the buzz that seemed to permeate her mind most days. "It's all so fruitless. Wasting time like that…not really getting close to any of them, mindlessly following the crowd…it irks me sometimes."<p>

He listened to her, fixing his previously steely eyes on her. "I just want to so much for things to have meaning. To stop living my life for other people. Sometimes I wake up and wonder where the real me is. I just— I don't want all this pressure to always be the best. But I- I don't give myself allowances. And everyone else has sort of picked up on it and I don't want to care what they think—"

"But you do." He cut her off, bluntly.

"And you don't." She grew quiet. "You don't care."

"That would be correct."

"You don't know how lucky you are." She sighed.

For the second time in two days, a blaze of anger flashed through his eyes. But he seemed to quell the sentiment and instead resorted to glancing at the star coated sky.

"I'm not lucky at all Vortex." A dangerous edge in his tone threatened to slash her assumption apart.

Cindy's temper flared. "Are you kidding, Neutron? People would kill to have a gift like yours. And you're going to spend your time on lame tours instead of harnessing your academic potential. Do you know how much of myself I have to give away?" She glowered at him.

He shook his head. "That's your choice, Vortex."

Cindy balled her fists. "God—sitting there with your glib little smirk—you don't know the first thing about me—"

"I know more about you than some of the idiots sitting over there." He stated simply, pointing towards the party.

"No one knows about me." Her words came out in a weak rasp. "Except Libby, and even she doesn't…know. No one knows how damn hard it is— I wish I could just scream sometimes—there's so much to do and so little time and I'm never satisfied." She closed her eyes and clenched her fists harder, a lump lodging in her throat. "I just want to feel like I'm enough for someone for once. Even if it's just for myself."

"Cindy?" He sounded bizarrely warm.

She unclenched her fists and spun around to face him. He leaned forward until his lips floated in front of hers. He affectionately brought a hand to her cheek and placed his lips on hers. She found herself responding by pressing into his embrace. Her hand clutched his wrist desperately for just a moment, until she pulled back abruptly, an appalling expression occupying her features. She retreated into herself, averting her gaze from Jimmy. She pulled her legs up to her chin and fiddled with her bracelet nervously.

"We should probably leave." Jimmy suggested amicably.

"Yeah." She sounded much more flustered than she'd hoped.

"We're lab partners. This is strictly a lab partnership." He expounded all his effort to diffuse the tension that hung in the air. She took his out.

"Absolutely."

"Anderson wouldn't approve." He added.

"I guess."

Wordlessly, the two shifted to the corners of their seats and Jimmy started up the hover-car, the engine making a low humming noise as they travelled in stillness. Cindy could barely process it all. The deep well of icy indifference that had covered her heart had just been smashed to bits. Regret nestled in her bones. Cindy was lost in a quagmire of unorthodox sensations. So much so that she barely noticed when they arrived at her house.

"Cindy?"

"Oh yeah, sorry." She offered awkwardly, stepping out of the hover car. She walked up the front pathway. "See you in class."

He gave her a noncommittal wave and receded into the black night.

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><p>As soon as Cindy had changed into a pair of pajamas and an old band t-shirt, her phone rung. She prayed that it wasn't Neutron. She wasn't sure how much more of him she could take in one night. She was relieved to find that it was Libby and not Neutron.<p>

"Hi Libs."

"Girl, where have you been lately?"

"I…I was studying." This wasn't entirely the truth, but it wasn't a lie either, and it would have to do.

"Marissa says otherwise. She says she saw you in that weird flying device Neutron's rigged a few minutes ago."

"Maybe she needs to get her eyes checked."

"Cindy, were you really with the freak?" Libby sighed.

"He's…not a freak." Cindy was surprised to find she had less difficulty with the words than she'd imagined.

"Just a week or two ago, you were telling me he was a nutcase and now you're suddenly best friends?"

"I don't know…he's just different. In a good way. He keeps me entertained."

"Nick could do that. I could too. Any number of _normal_ people could."

"Yeah but…I'm just doing him a favor." As soon as she'd said the words, she felt their sting hit her. She didn't mean it, of course not…but she couldn't let Libby think otherwise, right?

"A favor? So the kid did one lab report. Big deal. You don't need to spend an eternity trying to pay him back."

"No, I mean socially. He doesn't really have friends. I'm just trying to give him some company."

"Oh well, I guess a little charity is never too bad. Just make sure you divide your time evenly between Nerdtron and the actually important, non freakish people in your life."

"Okay." Cindy accepted Libby's suggestion in defeat.

"I'll talk to you later I guess? I need to practice singing my solo."

"Okay."

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><p>Cindy set down the phone without so much as a goodbye. She switched the lights off, and climbed into bed. She stared up at the ceiling, upset by her own cruelty. He was right, he was so unendurably right. Cindy was trapped by her own barbaric hand. The more she tried to tell herself there was some modicum of truth to her words, the more she felt overcome by shame and guilt. He didn't need company. He'd even said it. He was ok without people. It was she who thrived on others' opinions of her. It was she who really needed companionship and emotional support. It was she who had dug herself into this hole of perception and parsimony. She hated herself for it. The revelation that she loathed herself finally dawned on her, curling mercilessly at the fringes of her dreams.<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

**I apologize if you find this chapter to be a bit of a copout in terms of description of Jimmy and Cindy's time together. **

**Please continue reading/reviewing! I appreciate anyone supporting this story, given that this fandom is barely alive anymore (especially in terms of fan-fiction)**

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><p>Over the next few weeks, Jimmy became a regular fixture in Cindy's schedule. She found herself spending more and more time in the lab working with him on the robot dog. His initial assumption regarding her mechanical abilities had been rather accurate— Cindy was skilled with circuitry and part assembly. They'd made a lot of progress on the dog. While Cindy worked on the internal wiring and the external construction, Jimmy worked on the command coding and the dog's memory capacity. He was able to fashion a brain for their pet out of a plasma core filled with ionized gases. As they built the dog, they added in numerous features to supplement his role as a pet, the most impressive of which was his storage capability. Using the concept of his expandable hypercube, Jimmy was able to instill the dog with more storage than his physical appearance might otherwise suggest. Cindy also suggested a few features that made their way into the dog's awe-inspiring docket of skills— he was soon able to fly, self destruct, shoot lasers from his eyes, record voices, and function as an information transmitter, among other things.<p>

Besides the satisfaction of scientific accomplishment, Cindy also felt more stimulated and interested than she had in a while. She discovered that she looked forward to afternoons in the lab with Jimmy, the two covered in grease and dust as they chiseled away at their masterpiece, arguing about the merits of String Theory or the pitfalls of climate change.

After a lump sum of over ninety hours of work, Jimmy and Cindy finally put the finishing touches on their cooperative effort, endowing the dog with a carbon fiber tail. Jimmy switched the robot on, and the dog came alive for the first time, playfully jumping and running around the teen genius and his companion.

Cindy would never forget the light in Jimmy's eyes the night the dog came alive. He seemed so vibrant, so full of unadulterated happiness…it was almost uncharacteristic of him. In all the time she'd known him, she'd rarely seen him so truly joyful. Even during their building sessions in the lab, he was generally sarcastic or cracked dark jokes or argumentative. The dog seemed to imbue him with some great pleasure.

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><p>An hour after they'd turned the dog on, he suggested a short trip. Cindy shrugged and agreed. Cindy and the dog waited outside the lab. It was a little crisp for Retroville. A slight breeze nipped at the two as they stood patiently anticipating Jimmy's arrival. The dog sat obediently at Cindy's heels, cocking his head every so often to one side as Cindy stared off into the distance in contemplation.<p>

The low hum of the hover car jolted the two out of their tranquil state and prompted the dog to jump into the backseat. Cindy climbed in beside him and petted his glass head affectionately.

'So, where are we going, Neutron?"

Jimmy didn't respond. A somber likeness had occupied his expressions once more. He simply flew the hover car up higher and higher until they were amidst the clouds. Cindy spotted the stars glimmering like little gems in the not so far distance. Jimmy set the hover car on auto-pilot and suspended them in midair.

"This is beautiful."

The dog whined and curled its head up against Cindy's lap.

"He'll need a name." She suggested, stroking the dog's ears.

"Thought of any, ice queen?"  
>"Nothing's come to mind yet, <em>Nerd<em>tron." The name calling had become somewhat of a habit, a running gag between them. After a second, she looked at Jimmy. "Although I was thinking it might be fitting if we named him after some sort of scientist."

Jimmy seemed to consider the idea. "We're not naming the dog Einstein."

Cindy scoffed. "What do you take me for, an amateur?"

"Kind of." He admitted. She whacked him upside the head.

"What was that for?" He rubbed his head, irritated.

"For not acknowledging that I helped create this dog."

"I acknowledge it, I'm just not quite keen on calling you some kind of expert yet."

"Meanwhile, we'll call you the genius when I did all the sprocket work—"

"Hey—I can do sprocket work…I'm just not that fond of it."

"Just like you aren't fond of busy work like screwing parts together? Face it Neutron, this was a highly cooperative effort. Amateur or not, this dog wouldn't exist without me." She regarded him smugly, lips pursed into a telling smirk.

"Whatever, Vortex." He looked at the dog. "So what do we name him?"

Cindy looked up at the sky and back down at Jimmy.

"Something that suggests possibility…potential."

Jimmy gave her a small smile. "How about Goddard?"

She nodded excitedly.

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><p>A week later, in a rare display of terrestrial appreciation, Jimmy drove Cindy to the outskirts of Retroville in his parents' truck. They parked in front of the creek.<p>

The teen genius and his lab partner sat quietly at the back of the truck, while Goddard rampaged around the surrounding area trying to find tin cans to eat.

In an atypically peaceful manner, Jimmy and Cindy were lying side by side in the back, observing the constellations in the night sky. The outlines of their skinny frames barely grazed each other.

"Do you believe in God, Cindy?"

"Where do all your weird questions come from, Neutron?" Cindy sighed.

"Can you ever just answer the damn question?" He shook his head in mock anger.

"I guess I do sometimes."

"What does that even mean, Vortex?"

"I mean, what else could keep the balance in the universe? There's got to be some grand power out there keeping score and creating entities while also destroying them."

"Creation doesn't always spring from a creator." He countered. "I'm inclined to follow in Nietzsche's footsteps, anyways."

"Ah yes, Nietzsche, contemporary of the Great Neutron." Cindy teased.

"Well he is right. God is dead."

"What's that supposed to mean? He was alive at some point and then he just vanished into thin air and died on us?" He gave her a strange look.  
>"No, it suggests that humans have no need for the cosmic order anymore. They've rejected the idea of absolute moral principles. To say God is dead suggests we killed him. He no longer exists in our minds. In my mind."<p>

"In your mind?" She touched his hand. He immediately gazed at her. After a long moment, he responded.

"Yes." His voice sounded solemn, almost grave, as if to suggest he'd reached some ulterior ultimatum concerning life itself and not just the conversation at hand. Cindy knew it was best not to push him at times like this. Instead she grasped his hand and closed her eyes…

"Neutron?" Suddenly a growing panic overtook her. She felt the car's wheels gently moving beneath them. She sprang up at once. "Neutron, are we moving? She let go of his hand and he continued to lay back. His eyes were closed and he looked so calm…so peaceful…

The car was indeed moving. Cindy shook Neutron. Only he knew how to stop the car. "Neutron, get up." A wild fear tugged at the periphery of her voice. "Jimmy, please—" The car edged closer and closer to the precipice.

"Jimmy!" Cindy screamed at the top of her lungs, jumping out of the truck herself. Jimmy didn't say a word. He just smiled and looked up at the sky in a state of utter tranquility.

The car came to a sudden halt as he jumped out of the back, slammed open the front door, sprang to action and pressed the brake. Thankfully, he'd stopped it in the nick of time. Cindy felt her temper rise through the roof.

She slammed open the passenger door and jumped in beside him. "Are you trying to get us killed, you goddamn—"

"Cindy, calm down." He didn't even sound shaken by the whole incident.

"No, I will not calm down, you idiot!" Cindy slammed her fist against the dashboard. "You could have died." She tried to control the tears building steadily. "You could have died." She repeated in shock.

"Come on, I wasn't even close. We weren't even close." He gave her a playful smile. He called to Goddard, who came flying back at warp speed. He set Goddard in the back and climbed back into the driver's seat. Goddard whined as he picked up on Cindy's grave expression.

Cindy sulked and stared out the window as he started the car up. He turned the key in the ignition and started driving back towards Retroville. Cindy shivered as she stared out the window.

"Lighten up, Vortex."

"Don't tell me to lighten up Neutron. You know that wasn't funny in the slightest." Her voice was deadly.

He pursed his lips, finally realizing she wouldn't budge and continued to drive. Neither of the two spoke a word.

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><p>The teen genius pulled up in front of the Vortex household. Cindy refused to look at him. She was shivering, but hadn't rolled down her window. He gently removed his jacket and placed it around her. She finally turned to him, hugging the jacket close to her skin, the ghost of tears suspended on her cheeks.<p>

"Did you want to go over, Neutron?"

Jimmy didn't meet her expectant gaze. He fiddled with the side mirror instead. He mirrored her prior state and remained silent.

"You were so close to going over."

"I know close." He said quietly. "That wasn't it."

"Like hell it wasn't Neutron." She protested angrily.

"Good night Cindy." Jimmy looked at her, unable to conceal his deeply sad tone. His blue eyes seemed misty and distant.

Cindy didn't want to leave him alone tonight. She'd grown attached to him in the silliest of ways. But she found herself climbing out of the car. She gave him a half hearted wave. "Take care, okay, Neutron?"

He offered her a very weak, sad smile, and drove off. Cindy watched as his car disappeared down the street. As Cindy walked up the front steps of her porch, she heard a slight rattling noise. She put her hands in the pockets of his coat, surprised to find a tube-like object. She pulled it out and held it up to the light. It was an orange bottle, no taller than her finger, with a prescription pasted across the front. Some sort of medication. Cindy's heart beat doubled. Stowing the bottle back into the pocket of the coat, she unlocked the front door with the spare key under their welcome mat. Kicking off her boots, she ran upstairs to her room to do a little research.


	6. Chapter 6

Cindy rummaged through her backpack for her laptop as soon as she got to her room. Sitting on her bed Indian style, she logged in and looked up the name of the medication nestled in his coat's pocket.

_Tofranil. Also known as melipramine. Mainly used in the treatment of major depression._

Cindy's could barely process the words in front of her. She shut off her laptop, set it on her desk and got up to turn off the lights. She quickly discarded her jeans for a pair of pajamas and a tank top, and settled back into bed, hugging his coat tightly against her exposed skin. The faint smell of metal and cologne permeated from the rugged material, and she breathed it in.

She groaned internally. He was sick, and she was…well, she didn't even know how she felt about any of this. He was the most stimulating person she'd ever met, among a host of other things. She could never have imagined it, but she enjoyed his company. She enjoyed arguing with him, working on things together, and having arbitrary conversations. She hated admitting it to herself, but it was true. And she was certainly concerned for his well-being. She wanted him to be happy.

She pictured his robin-blue eyes glittering with the ghost of a smile and pulled her legs against her chin. She was confused and embarrassed and angry and she just wanted things to be okay…like they had been. It seemed so long ago that they'd first been assigned to be partners in chemistry…

She finally closed her eyes and fell asleep. There was only so much uncertainty she could digest in one sitting.

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><p>The following morning, Cindy got to school late. Her eyes betrayed her lack of sleep and her deep unease. She skipped lunch to work on a project and tried to avoid Libby's questioning to the best of her ability. Before her last class of the day, she stopped at her locker to gather her textbooks. Hearing footsteps, she looked up to find none other than Nick Dean standing right in front of her. She threw her books into her bag and drew herself up to her full height.<p>

Over the years, Nick Dean had grown even taller, and had grown into an aesthetic marked by leather jackets, skinny jeans, and giant belts. His hair was always coiffed to one side, styled with a gratuitous amount of hair gel. He slouched against the neighboring lockers and waited for her to dignify his presence with some sort of greeting. She was simply too lost in her thoughts to say a word, and he clearly had some point to make, so he took the reins.

"I haven't seen you around at all, Vortex." Nick flipped his hair to the side and chewed on a piece of gum.

"I've been really busy, Nick, I'm sorry—"

"You never come to the parties anymore. And everyone's saying you're hanging out with that freak all the time—" He snapped his gum and stared at Cindy, hoping for a straight confirmation or denial.

"He's _not_ a freak."

"Jeez, no need to get all up in my grill. The kid's a geek and everyone knows it."

"He's not just a geek!" She growled in frustration. "And I'm just— I'm just so bored of these dumb parties. They're always the same." She sighed.

"You used to like them until you met _Nerdbomb._" Nick snickered at his own epithet.

"Look, I'm just not up for it right now, okay? So, if you'll excuse me, I have somewhere to be." Cindy pushed past a shocked Nick and made her way to chemistry class.

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><p>For some strange reason, Cindy's heart rate doubled as she entered her chemistry classroom. She quickly scanned the room to find that Neutron wasn't yet there. She breathed a sigh of relief, glad that he wasn't in class yet. Besides, it wasn't like Neutron ever came to class on time.<p>

Mr. Anderson handed out their tests from last week (much to her chagrin, Neutron had scored a hundred, and a paltry difference of one point had left her at a ninety-nine). After handing out tests, he gave out instructions for the new lab.

Cindy made her way to their lab table alone, hoping he'd show up soon. But after twenty minutes of conducting the experiment herself, she gave up hope that he was coming at all. A fervent fear overtook her for the remainder of the period. She hoped to God that he was fine…not driving his truck or his hover-car recklessly…

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><p>When the bell rang at last, Cindy made her way up to Mr. Anderson, hoping he might know where the teen genius was.<p>

"Jimmy is going through a hard time right now, Cindy. I'm not sure if chemistry is his first priority."

She nodded. "I just hope he's okay." She mumbled.

Mr. Anderson must have heard her. He called out to her. "Cindy…I'm not sure if I should tell you this but he'd be here if could. He picked you as his partner."

Cindy's anger bubbled up.

"Jimmy chose me?" She repeated dumbstruck.

Anderson shook his head yes. "He asked me before the start of class. I usually don't—"

"Excuse me." Cindy grabbed her bag and stormed out the door.

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><p>Cindy cancelled all her club meetings and walked straight to the Neutron household after school. She slammed on the front door until she heard footsteps.<p>

A man in a sweater vest and khakis answered the door. "Hi, Mr. Neutron?" She stuck out her hand.

He gazed back at her, confused. "You're that Vortex girl from down the block?"

She shook her head yes. "Jimmy and I are lab partners." He shrugged. "I'll see if I can get Jimmy for you."

Cindy stepped inside and looked at the pictures on the walls. Most of the pictures were of Jimmy and his father, although a few featured a woman with red hair and a dazzling smile. There was a portrait of her atop the bookshelf.

Hugh returned. "No can do, kiddo. Jimbo's feeling a bit under the weather lately."

"Okay." Cindy dejectedly left, angry that she'd made absolutely no progress in the way of figuring out where Neutron was and how he was doing.

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><p>He didn't come in on Tuesday. Or Wednesday or Thursday or Friday. He was (debatably) a genius, yes, but surely even he understood that playing hooky to set the lab on fire a few hundred times would get him some kind of truancy notice? What else could he possibly be doing holed up down there? She knew he was there.<p>

Loath as she was to admit it, Cindy had felt his absence from the very moment she realized he wasn't coming to school on Monday morning. It was an odd feeling to slip into her seat and not look over to see Neutron tinkering away at some oversized, dangerously volatile device in his own seat while she freaked out over finishing a lab Neutron might have done in mere minutes. It was getting tiresome to do their lab reports alone—their scientific partnership had a very steady dynamic that allowed for the maintenance of their respective GPAS.

On Friday afternoon, Cindy politely declined an offer to third wheel with Libby at the Candy Bar and trudged home instead, content to be left alone with her thoughts. It would be a few hours before her mother got home from work and goaded her into finishing as much of the next week's homework as she possibly could. As soon as she returned home, she climbed the stairs and lay down on her bed to observe the sky. The air was thick with fog, and it was difficult to see much farther than a few hundred feet. Usually there were noises emanating from down the street: the sound of Goddard chasing another dog, the sound of whirring and drilling from the lab, the sound of Neutron's dad mowing the lawn. But the neighborhood was eerily silent.

Cindy knew something had to be wrong. She slipped on a sweater, slid down the roof tiles to the grass below, and made her way over to the lab, forsaking her calculus homework. She pounded on the door. "Neutron, you better open the damn door!"

After fifteen minutes of unsuccessful haranguing, Cindy scanned the ground for stray pieces of hair. She found a few pieces littering the ugly maroon welcome mat. Snatching them up and grimacing, she used them to gain access to the lab. Within seconds of Vox validating Neutron's DNA, she found herself being transported down an all too familiar orange tube.

Cindy landed on a hard mattress. The lab was actually pretty decently kept. She couldn't identify any remnants of chemical explosions or mechanical failures on sight. Nor could she identify any emotional discontent—Neutron's lab was always littered with purple Flurp and pizza boxes when he was rushing a deadline or upset about something. The lab was pristine.

"Neutron, if you don't show yourself, I swear I'll-"

"Are you crazy, Vortex?" A voice came from above her. Her heart pounded in her chest. She was relieved to see him, but it angered her that her suspicions were correct.

"So Einstein Jr. decided it would be fun to take a vacation and tinker around in the lab instead of come to school. Because he's just too good for school." She incited, hands on her hips.

"What gave you the right to trespass in my lab, Vortex?" He walked down the rickety stairs and stood in front of Cindy, eyes filled with unmistakable venom. His white shirt hung limply over his bony frame. His body was slumped over with obvious fatigue.

"Trespass? Neutron, you haven't come to school for a week." She huffed.

"So?" He poked her shirt. "Why do you care, Miss Key Club, Karate Champ, *****Valedictorian? Don't you have better things to do on a Friday night?"

She stood silently, lips pursed.

"Why is Cindy Vortex stalking the biggest geek at Retroville High?" Scorn was etched all over the lines of his face.

"You moron. I was concerned. Clearly, that's not an emotion you're capable of understanding." She shot daggers at him.

"You bother my dad, break into my lab, and tell me you're concerned about me? Bullshit. We know all you care about is your GPA, Vortex."

Cindy gaped. "If I cared about my GPA, you sure as hell wouldn't be my lab partner anymore, since I do all the reports myself."

"You know, I should really start calling you Vindictive Vortex. Has a ring to it, wouldn't you say?" He sneered.

Cindy pulled the orange tube of medication from her pocket.

"This is why I'm here, Freak Brain. This is why I'm here."

She shoved it into his hands and assumed a fighting stance. "I'm not here to tell you to come back to class so my GPA will increase, because believe me, my GPA will be fine with or without you." She offered him a slight smirk. "I'm here because you never told me you had a problem."

Jimmy frowned at her, eyes dripping with open contempt.

"Maybe you need those pills more than I do, Vortex. Get out of my lab."

"Neutron, you're being a real jerk." She glanced at him, disgusted, and ran out of the lab, concealing the sheen of tears that had started to glaze over her eyes.

* * *

><p>On Saturday afternoon, Cindy and her mother drove down to Houston. As usual, the two spent the car ride studying for some test or the other, and when they arrived, they parted ways— Cindy to the ring, and her mother to the front row to watch. Cindy defeated her first few opponents with ease, but she uncharacteristically met her match after a few rounds. She was unable to focus on anything. She was filled with the foreboding sense that everything was senseless and lacked any real purpose.<p>

As her mother carted her out of the tournament, lecturing her daughter about all the time she'd put into making sure this tournament would be nothing short of the linchpin to cinch her admission to Harvard, Cindy had a strong urge to tell her mom to just shut up for once. Her dissatisfaction was mounting to dangerous levels, and it was all thanks to that egoistic imbecile she hated with every atom of her being— Jimmy Neutron.

Sasha Vortex's insults fell on deaf ears. She continued to deride Cindy for her third place ranking, while Cindy stared out the window, mourning the death of her once successful front of contentment and achievement. The way she viewed things was shaken beyond belief, stirred to the boiling point. She couldn't cope with the fruitlessness of it all.

* * *

><p>On Monday morning, Jimmy showed up to class for the first time in two weeks. (Late, of course) He sat down beside her as if nothing had happened at all. She ignored him and worked on the lab while he watched her amusedly, further provoking her already flared temper.<p>

* * *

><p>"Who the hell do you think you are, Neutron?" Cindy grabbed him by the back of his coat as they walked out of class.<p>

Jimmy didn't choose to dignify that with a response, instead opting to grin stupidly as he walked as fast as he could through the hallways, shaking her off like a insect.

"Why in hell did you pick me to be your freaking lab partner?"

He chuckled to himself. "Have you seen yourself, Vortex? You're a regular Marie Curie. The full package. Brains, brawn, and great hair." The mocking edge in his voice only pushed her further over the edge.

"Don't bullshit me, Neutron. Anderson told me."

Jimmy spun around and regarded her acrimoniously.

"Did you consider taking those pills like I suggested, Vortex? And might I recommend some sort of anger management course while we're at it?"

She shoved past him, appalled at his blatant animosity.

Absolutely everything was going to shit.

* * *

><p>Before Cindy went to bed, she entertained a call from Libby.<p>

"Girl, are you tripping?"

"Libby, I'm really not in the mood—"

"You told Nick off and defended Nerdtron?"

_He didn't deserve me defending him. He's a pretentious moron._

"So what if I did?"

"Everyone's talking about it."

"Just fabulous." Cindy muttered.

"You didn't place first at the tournament. And you've been missing club meetings. What's going on, Cindy? It's all Neutron's fault isn't it?"

_In a manner of speaking._

_"_It has nothing to do with him."

"Riiiightt." Libby sounded unconvinced.

"Just don't let some freak ruin your life. Isn't Harvard sending out acceptances soon? "

"Thanks for the advice, Libby." She offered sarcastically, not bothering to reply to her question.

"Anytime."

After the conversation ended, Cindy collapsed into bed.

_Too late, Libby. Too late._


	7. Chapter 7

**A few notes to preface this chapter:**

***A lot of people seem to wonder why Jimmy is being such a jerk. There is an explanation rest assured!**

***It took me a little longer to write this because nothing I came up with really clicked with me. This was probably the most difficult chapter to write because I had to rewrite it after deciding halfway through that I wanted to stick with the movie's plot instead of branch off into my own idea. **

**That aside, thank you again to all my readers and reviewers who fuel my motivation to continue this! Onwards to the last few chapters! **

* * *

><p>On Tuesday morning, Cindy woke up at 6AM after a night of restless sleep and bad dreams. She studied her reflection in the mirror. Her appearance reflected her internal turmoil. Wisps of blonde hair struggled to break free of the plait she'd made the night before, and her eyes were puffy and red. She was tired, so tired of going to being driven from activity to activity like a donkey. She was tired of being surrounding by hopelessly shallow people and harsh teachers. She was weary of her mother berating her constantly. Her feelings of malaise had hit an all time record.<p>

* * *

><p>She went through the motions of showering, brushing her teeth and throwing on a new set of clothes and a dash of makeup. She left the house at seven thirty, mother in tow. Sasha drove her to school and she lingered in the hallways with her backpack half-heartedly slung on one shoulder. The thought of going to classes made her feel anxious and miserable.<p>

_What if I just cut classes?_

She stole into a nearby bathroom as the bell for first period rung.

In all her years attending public schooling, Cindy Vortex had never even considered cutting class. She'd elevated the action to something like a heinous crime against her quest to attain her letter of admission from Harvard. But now, in these last two months of school, would it really matter all that much if she skipped class? It wasn't like she didn't have an A in every class she was in (and an A- in Chemistry because of her stupid lab partner, who would inevitably be absent again).

Would it matter so much when…when she wasn't even sure of what she wanted anymore? Cindy leaned against the grimy bathroom wall. This would be one more strike against her. One too many, she feared. But a strike she was willing to take if that's what was required to send a clear message—

She was done with her mother making her choices for her.

* * *

><p>Cindy bravely ventured out into the halls. They were empty, with the exception of a few students loitering near the other bathrooms and water fountains. Thankfully, these weren't students from Cindy's classes or anyone she really knew or cared too much about. She continued to walk down the hall and stopped in front of the first aid room near the gym. It was almost always empty, and she'd often come to the gym to sneak some painkillers after a hard soccer match or a killer track meet. She scanned the hallway and entered the room as quietly as possible, switched on the lights and found the cabinet with the Advil. She popped two and used sink water to wash it down. Turning to her left, her eyes fell upon some new file cabinets that she hadn't seen before. The sign above the cabinet read "Student Health Records."<p>

Retroville High had always been pretty lax in terms of its filing systems. Cindy knew this because she'd done some administrative work over the summer to earn some money. Cindy didn't know what possessed her but a devious idea had begun to sprout in the back of her mind. She kneeled down and opened the first cabinet to find freshmen and sophomore files. She shifted her attention to the file cabinets to her left and rifled through the bottom of the third cabinet, looking for N.

_Nabb, Naccari, Nagle, Nesbitt, Neutron. _

She pulled out Neutron's file and stowed it in her bag. As she zipped her bag and stood up, she turned to face her gym teacher standing in the doorway with an injured student. "Excuse me Miss Vortex, are you authorized to be handling those files?"

"I can explain, Coach Patten—"

"You can explain to the principal, young lady. Tampering with confidential information isn't tolerated at this school."

_Damn her luck._

* * *

><p>Cindy sat silently across from Principal Willoughby, who had been promoted to the high school a few years ago.<p>

"Now, Cindy, how is it a student like you has been missing classes and going through private documents? We've never had trouble with you before." Willoughby straightened his glasses and leaned back in his chair.

"I can explain—"

Cindy heard screaming in the hallway. "My Cynthia would do no such thing!"

She mentally kicked herself. This was not going to be fun in the least.

Sasha Vortex stood behind her a few seconds later, looking very angry and stressed. She took a seat beside Cindy, who immediately tensed.

"Ms. Vortex, Cindy here was found by a gym teacher going through some private records down by the gym. She's also skipped all her morning classes."

Sasha turned to Cindy, poised to attack. "First you lose the tournament and now this?"

"I didn't lose." Cindy said quietly. _Third place isn't always a loss._

"Ms. Vortex, perhaps this isn't the time to discuss that." He suggested. Sasha backed down, pursing her lips in disgust. "Of course."

"Because Cindy is a good student and has no track record of bad behavior, we are willing to let this slide. She will be suspended for a week."

"Suspended? You have to be joking." Her mother's jaw clenched in rage.

"Cynthia is applying to Harvard."

"As the faculty is well aware, Ms. Vortex. But rules are rules."

Cindy's mother stood up, dragging her out of Willoughby's office.

* * *

><p>"What were you thinking?" Sasha Vortex proceeded on the tirade of the century as she drove Cindy back home. "Do you want them to reject you? Is that what you want?"<p>

Tears shone in Cindy's eyes as her mother continued to yell at the top of her lungs.

Cindy wanted to much to say that maybe it wouldn't be so bad if she didn't go to Harvard if it meant keeping her sanity. But she knew that provoking her mother further would only incite a war. A war Cindy could not deal with right now. She was already sparring with Neutron and battling her own demons.

Cindy's mother dropped her off in front of their home before she returned to work. "When I get back tonight, we're having a serious discussion, Cynthia. And you better not do any more shit between now and then or god help you." She threatened, driving off.

* * *

><p>Cindy unlocked the front door and trudged up to her room. She threw her bag against the floor, file forgotten. She looked out her window at the bleak sky. It was going to rain. She didn't care. She needed to feel something, anything other than this despondent sensation of hopelessness. She grabbed the keys and went back outside.<p>

Her gaze latched onto the lab. She furiously made her way over. This was all Neutron's doing. He'd taken her happy little illusion of contentment and shattered it beyond repair, leaving her all alone to sweep up the pieces. She banged on the door indignantly, until Jimmy attended the door. She marched in resentfully.

"Everything is totally screwed up and it's all your fault Neutron."

"My fault?" She was surprised to hear his voice was calm, amicable even. She didn't care.

"I as well as lost my karate tournament, skipped school and got suspended. Harvard's probably going to turn me down. And it all just feels so pointless."

He stood with his back to her, so she couldn't even see his expression. But she continued on her diatribe of affronts.

"Then you came along and put these crazy ideas about how miserable my life really is into my head and it just got unbearable. And I don't even know why I'm here." She broke down at last, sobs erupting from her quivering lips.

He looked straight ahead, swallowing down a lump that had lodged itself in his throat. He struggled against every atom in his body not to turn around and let Cindy know the honest truth. But he couldn't. He could never do that…for his sake…and her own. And it went against everything he knew…these deep interactions between them. They belonged at opposite ends of the spectrum. He had tried in vain to see her as the perfect, enviable porcelain doll he'd always seen her as, but even he had to admit that she was layered, complex even. Cindy Vortex was not some air headed teenager. She was…inexplicably convoluted and much to his consternation, was far more than the blond haired GPA obsessed girl he'd originally taken her for.

"And the worst part is…" She took a deep breath to collect herself. "It's all so pointless, it's all so pointless. But when I was with you…" She paused once more. "It was different. It was nice. I felt like I had some purpose. I wasn't just some robot trying to please any number of people."

Jimmy closed her eyes as she continued mindlessly.

"And I don't care. I don't care where you're going to be next year or if you're really crazy. I just don't understand why you're doing all this to me—"

She collapsed into tears. He couldn't take this for a moment longer. He turned around and hugged her. She put her arms around him desperately, seeking an anchor to pin her down. He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her without abandon. He took in her numbing jasmine scent as they pressed up against the wall of the lab. Their body heat melded as they fought each other for dominance. Jimmy ran his hands through Cindy's wavy blond tresses and reveled in this moment of great intimacy and synthesis. Cindy had most definitely been wrong— there was an undeniable chemistry between them.

* * *

><p>An hour later, Cindy sat across from Jimmy on a couch in the lab, donning his navy blue science olympiad shirt and his coat. She laid her head on his shoulder and stroked his hair affectionately.<p>

"How's Goddard been?"

"He's been fine, I guess."

Jimmy turned to her, captivated by her emerald eyes.

Cindy nuzzled her cheek against his fondly.

"Will I see you in school tomorrow? She ventured.

"I don't know." He admitted. "In fact, I don't know about any of this."

She sat up straight and tilted her head to one side, puzzled.

"What do you mean, Neutron?"

"I mean, a guy like me…I love my research more than anything."

She smiled. "I understand I'll always play mistress to your true loves- Math and Science."

He looked at her dead serious. "I mean, you have Nick, right? He's actually not that bad. Good for you. And Libby'll keep you on track…"

"Neutron, what the hell are you talking about?" The previously adoring expression in her eyes was replaced with her signature look of fury and disappointment.

He looked at the floor for a second. He couldn't bear to look at her.

"Let's just forget about it."

Cindy's eyes filled up with tears as she looked at him with utter hatred.

"Screw you, Neutron." She managed to shove his coat off herself and flung it at him.

"You just did." He offered weakly as she took off.

He simply sat rooted to his spot, and looked at the now empty space beside him.

He'd done what he had to.


	8. Chapter 8

**I apologize that this is a short chapter, but it serves to preface my next two chapters, which will be considerably longer, since they'll be the last two chapters!**

**Onwards!**

* * *

><p>Following her emotional altercation with Jimmy, Cindy headed home and curled into bed. She wept ceaselessly into her pillow until she fell asleep from fatigue.<p>

When Cindy's mother returned home from work, she found her daughter fast asleep. Sasha was angry, but the sight of Cindy passed out in her bed by seven PM stirred a sort of motherly pity in her. It wasn't often that Sasha felt any sort of prolonged affection for her daughter, so she decided to deal with Cindy in the morning. She'd had a long day herself.

* * *

><p>Cindy woke up early the following morning. Instead of getting out of bed to make the most of her day as she might have done most days, she laid back, pulling her blanket more tightly to her body. Her whole body felt heavy, weighed down by the ghost of her irretrievable self and the wretched reality of her life.<p>

Her self pity didn't last for long before her mother came rampaging in, throwing the curtains open. She stood at the foot of Cindy's bed in her gray pantsuit and tight bun. "What do you have to say for yourself, Cynthia?"

Cindy wanted to sink into her sheets and disappear. She couldn't handle her mother's ministrations any more than she could bear to wake up and face the twisted truth that she'd been screwed over in more ways than one.

"You lose your tournament, you skip class, you get an A minus in Chemistry, and half the time I don't even know where you are!" She shouted, throwing her hands up in the air.

"And now you tamper with school documents and get suspended?"

Cindy's eyes travelled to her bag involuntarily, as she realized she still had Neutron's file.

"What was the need to go rifling through school files? Are you insane? If Harvard hears about this, and believe me, they will, they'll be crossing your name off the wait-list without so much as a second glance."

Sasha observed her daughter's tired expression with fury. "I sure as hell hope you have a damn good explanation for your delinquency—"

Cindy could no longer put up with her mother's incessant aggression.

"I was looking out for a friend."

Sasha's jaw hardened considerably. "I've told you time and time again, that there's no such thing as a 'friend' when it comes to academics. There's you and then there's a hundred more qualified people out to get exactly what you want."

Cindy pursed her lips. "This friend…it wouldn't happen to be that stupid boy from across the street, would it? I've seen you come home with him a few times. I thought nothing of it at first because I knew you had to tolerate the boy in order to get chemistry work done…but I had no clue you'd go to extreme lengths for him."

"He's not stupid." She gritted her teeth. "He's a certified genius." Her mother regarded her defensive outburst with obvious surprise.

To save some face, Cindy sat up in bed and crossed her arms over her chest, defiantly. "But believe me, I sure as hell wouldn't do anything for him, and even if I did, that would be _my_ choice."

"Your choice?" Sasha's venomous eyes bore into Cindy's. "You're under the delusion that you have choices at this point in your high school career?"

"I could go to any one of the other schools I was admitted to."

"And sell yourself short because you got lazy? What a waste of potential."

Sasha's words hit her violently and she felt a lump forming in her throat. A flurry of tears threatened to spill. She looked away from her mother in fear of letting her mother see any stray tears.

"Come what may, I expect a letter of admission. Make it happen, Cynthia." She snarled.

And then she was gone, leaving Cindy in the company of her two new best friends: Misery and Rage.

* * *

><p>For quite some time after her mother left, Cindy remained in a comatose state, staring aimlessly at the ceiling. She let the ebb and flow of sadness overtake her. She would drown in her own ocean of torment. Her life had become some sort of theatrical production put on for the amusement of the cruel universe.<p>

Around noon, she dragged herself out of bed. Sluggishly, she made her way to her desk to retrieve her AP Chemistry study material, when the coveted folder fell out of her bag. It seemed so silly now…to risk everything for a stupid boy. A stupid boy who had used her, no less. She bit her lip to keep from crying as she stared at the name on the folder. _Jimmy Neutron. _The name now seemed to signify some destroyed vestige of hope. Nevertheless, her curiosity as to the contents of the folder overrode her resentment towards Neutron.

She flipped the folder open to find a physical report. Standard information like his name, weight, height, and age were covered in the first half of the page. The second half of the page was less standard, as it detailed extraneous medical conditions. Her eyes scanned the notes on the bottom of the page until they fell on a single, soul-crushing word.

_Cancer._

Her hands started to shake, as she dropped the folder on the floor. She was unable to process it for a few seconds. She forced herself to pick up the papers and read the entries scribbled haphazardly across the page. Her brain latched onto a few stark words. _Malignant brain tumor. Recovery. Unexpected new growths. Personality changes, and symptoms of clinical depression emerging. _

She threw the file across the room, incapable of holding it in her hands any longer. Her whole body trembled as she managed to stand up.

* * *

><p>"Jimmy!" She banged on the door of the lab again and again. "Jimmy open the door!" She leaned her head against the wooden panels. "Please come outside." She begged in vain. "<em>Please.<em>"

But Jimmy didn't come out.

* * *

><p>"Hey look, it's that girl who got suspended!"<p>

"I heard she went poking around where she shouldn't have."

"Isn't she on the waitlist for Harvard?"

Word had spread like wildfire about Cindy Vortex's suspension. Clusters of seniors whispered and pointed at her discreetly as she walked through the halls of Retroville High for the first time in a week.

Libby scouted out her friend and wrapped a protective arm around Cindy's shoulder. They walked down the hall together, glaring at the gossipmongers littering the hallways. Libby only had a vague idea of the reasons for Cindy's suspension, but she hadn't questioned Cindy about it too much, which Cindy found relieving.

Somehow, the two made it through the day. Libby's show of unusually silent solidarity gave Cindy some well needed peace of mind. That was, until her last class of the day— AP Chem.

* * *

><p>The last class before AP review saw students working on their final lab report. Cindy sat quietly at her lab station, doing her work and drowning out the surrounding chatter about prom and final exams.<p>

A voice called out from behind her. "Excited for prom, Vortex?"

She didn't even turn around to face Neutron. He took his usual seat opposite her and propped his head up on one arm.

"Aren't you excited to dress up in some overly priced dress, knot your hair in the most complicated twists, and take pictures with a bunch of tall, tan guys in suits?"

Cindy clenched her fists.

"And the trite pop music will be fantastic too—"

"Shut. Up." Her voice was deadly, and she carefully concealed her teary gaze by refusing to look in Neutron's direction.

"Come now, Cindy, surely you're a little enthusiastic like your peers."

"I will not hesitate to punch your oversized head, Neutron."

"Ah, the end of chemistry as we know it." He smirked and shook his head in amusement.

"As far as I'm concerned, this is a really shitty way to end things."

She grabbed her notebook and pen, stuffed them into her bag, got up and left, leaving the whole class staring behind her in awe. Mr. Anderson stared rather reproachfully at Jimmy.

He simply shrugged his shoulders. "Guess she wasn't too excited about titration."


	9. Chapter 9

**This is most likely the penultimate chapter of this story. I apologize for its shortness, but this was the chapter I worked hardest on. This was the one chapter I wanted to write to perfection. I took a risk in maintaining a low word count in a chapter that is supposed to explain a lot of the story and create perhaps the deepest emotional impact in the story. ****I don't know if I succeeded with this writing-wise, but I certainly tried to condense the content to make sure I was saying a lot without the help of too many words. **

**Once again, I appreciate everyone who's been encouraging me to continue this story. I know it needs a lot of logical editing and some minor grammatical work, but all said and done, I'm glad to have worked on this. I'm looking forward to going back and making this a better story after I add the last chapter. **

**That being said, here's the next installment!**

* * *

><p>After class, Libby caught up with Jimmy.<p>

"Listen, Neutron." She grabbed his shoulder. He spun around to face her. "You too? I thought it was just Cindy who enjoyed using last names."

Libby rolled her eyes. "I don't know what's going on between you and my girl Cindy, but you better fix whatever mess you've inevitably created."

"Why do you assume it's me?"

"Because she didn't skip school, lose tournaments and get suspended before she met you. I'll admit I haven't been treated to the complete lowdown on her suspension, but I do know that she got caught reading some school files or something."

Jimmy's eyes widened in shock.

Libby crossed her arms over her chest. "Yeah that's right, you'd _better_ be surprised."

"I have to go."

The realization that she _knew _was finally starting to sink in. Of course, he'd had an inkling when he'd heard her pounding at his door last week, although he'd assumed she was just mad about their rather compromising situation, which he hadn't wanted to discuss at the time. But now that he knew what she'd been suspended for, he was sure that she knew. It didn't seem like she was taking the news particularly well.

* * *

><p>Jimmy rushed back to the lab. Goddard greeted him by pressing up against his pant leg. He stroked the dog's ears fondly. "Goddard, I need you to help me find Cindy."<p>

Goddard whined and the panel on the front of his stomach flipped up to reveal a GPS locator.

"Track Cindy Vortex."

A little red dot flashed continually until it started to zero in on a specific spot in Retroville.

Jimmy was a little taken aback by her whereabouts, but it was fitting in an strangely circular sort of way.

"Would Master like Goddard's company?"

Jimmy bent down and gave his beloved pet a small smile. "Thanks boy, but I have to do this myself."

Goddard nodded, if such a thing was possible, and trotted off cheerfully.

* * *

><p>Twenty minutes later, with the help of his jetpack, Jimmy alighted in front of Retroville Church. The church had been around for years, although it retained a modern look. The long, arching glass windows reflected sunlight at odd angles, creating a pastiche of shadow patterns across the aisles.<p>

Jimmy threw open the doors, to find the whole place empty exception of one Cindy Vortex, sitting right in the front row. He sat down next to her, and didn't say a word as he observed her carefully. Her eyes fluttered open when she heard his silent breathing next to her. She held him in her regard for a split second before she turned her eyes back to the altar. After a long pause, Cindy took a deep breath.

"Why didn't you tell me?" The distress in her voice boiled over dangerously.

Jimmy turned his attention to the elaborate crucifix on the wall opposite him.

"At least it wasn't about sympathy for the sick kid." He stated acridly.

"That's not fair." She protested, her green eyes flashing in anger.

Jimmy faced her crossly. "How can you say that to me? If it wasn't for my illness, I'd be at Harvard. I'd be spending my life working for NASA. I'd be the golden student. But I don't factor into the school's system anymore. My GPA doesn't matter."

Cindy's expression belied the deep sting of his statement.

"They didn't even want to ride it out and see if—if you'd make it?" The words came out of her mouth, but they sounded foreign to her. She hadn't quite registered his illness.

He shook his head no. "False hope is the thief of all possible joy."

A film of tears had begun to form on her eyes.

"Why did you come here?"

He shrugged. "To witness a resurrection."

"God's?" She motioned to the cross.

He closed his eyes. "Mine."

Cindy stared at the veins branching over his pale eyelids like ivy. She had so many unanswered questions. The first and foremost of which remained like a solid weight at the forefront of her mind. After a few moments of stillness, she moved to put forth her burning query.

"Why me?"

Jimmy tapped his foot on the marble tile. "You had a beautiful life. I had nothing. I couldn't stand you…always the star of everything, always applauded— lauded for your skills. I wanted to take you down. I wanted to make you absolutely miserable…realize that your life was actually a contrived mess. And I got away with it too. How's that for closure, Vortex?"

Cindy brushed away some tears and clenched her fists, enraged. "You think you're so amusing when you act like some sort of anti-hero, don't you?"

"This isn't a Lifetime movie, last I checked." He scoffed.

"Right, because a Lifetime movie would have a better goodbye scene than this. Try again, Neutron. And this time, spare me your horrid theatrics."

"I had everything figured out. I was coming to grips with my little secret just fine. And then I decided to try and take a chance on the coldest girl in school. I assumed you'd dispense with me by day two. But you, being you, actually took me seriously. It all got weird. And me, being me, I realized all I ever really wanted…"

He looked at the floor sadly. "I just wanted a little more time, but hey, what the heck? We all disintegrate eventually. I was just in the AP class."

Cindy's eyes widened as the heaviness of his words hit her. She took his hand bravely.

"Well, let's make sure you get a five."

He studied her intently. "Cindy—"

"I'm staying with you, Neutron."

He took a second to realize what she was saying and gave her a small smile. She laid her head on his shoulder, and the two sat together peacefully, content to savor the beauty of the moment.


	10. Chapter 10

**This is the final chapter of this story! I'll be writing a more extensive writer's note in the epilogue to follow shortly. But for now, a huge thank you to all my readers and reviewers. **

**Note: The quote at the very end is fittingly part of a work by none other than Friedrich Nietzsche. **

* * *

><p>"It's here, Cynthia."<p>

Her mother's hands trembled as she lifted an envelope from the mailbox. She moved to break the seal, but Cindy snatched the letter from her mother's hands. "This is for me, mother."

Sasha's jaw hardened, but she nodded. "Go on then."

Cindy tore the seal apart and and extracted a white sheet of paper. She allowed herself a moment of pause before she unfolded the letter.

_Dear Miss Cynthia Aurora Vortex,_

_I am delighted to inform you that the Committee of Admissions at Harvard College has taken you off the waitlist and has voted to offer you a place in our undergraduate class beginning this fall. We would be delighted to have a student like you…_

"Well?" Sasha tapped her foot impatiently, and seized the letter from Cindy's frozen hands. She emitted a high pitched screech and looked at her daughter, brimming with pride. "You got in."

Cindy nodded, unable to register the gravity of the moment. She'd been accepted to the greatest university in the United States, arguably even the world. And despite her malice towards the torment the admissions process had put her through, she felt the smallest twinge of… gratification. It was fleeting, but she felt it, and that was enough for her. To know that there was a light at the end of the tunnel, to know that some fruit had been borne of her sleepless nights and ceaseless efforts to be the best. Whether she wanted to go was another matter altogether, but she would figure that out another day. For now, she was simply content with the idea of being enough. Being someone people wanted, despite her flaws and her admittedly less than characteristic behavior, was sufficient to please her.

"You know, I thought you were done for sure, what with the suspension and all your hijinks lately…but what do you know? My Cynthia's come through." Sasha awkwardly placed a hand on her daughter's shoulder.

Cindy shrugged her mother's hand away. Regardless of the screwed up relationship between her and Neutron, and all the terrible sorrow and self-questioning that had come of their partnership, Cindy had come to an understanding that were she to receive a second shot, she would do things exactly the same. Neutron had distorted her views on life itself, driving her to the very brink of destruction, and yet he seemed to be at the axis of all her virtue as well. He had brought out an exemplary creativity in her, a previously chained, vulnerable portion of herself. Most importantly perhaps, he had reminded her that she was after all only a teenage girl. Maybe a teenage girl who could build complex machines and work herself to the bone, but still a teenage girl. A teenage girl with quick changing emotions, with a wobbly grasp on a rapidly moving world. A teenage girl with a heart that begged to be listened to, and a mind that asked to be respected. A teenage girl who didn't have to know everything just yet, but still knew her true self at its core.

Cindy turned to her mother. "You were allowed to have doubt, while I was robbed of it."

"What are you talking about?" Sasha furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"I was never allowed to be 'done for' and you know it. My coming through was necessary, inevitable, in a sense."

Sasha stared back at her daughter, shocked.

"Are you insinuating that I—"

"I'm not insinuating anything. I'm simply saying that failure was never an option for me, be that good or bad."

* * *

><p>A few minutes after six PM, Neutron stood outside her porch, with the hover car, as requested.<p>

"You're late." She observed, jumping into the driver's seat. He gaped at her and wordlessly climbed into the passenger seat.

"Never been one for punctuality, Vortex." A wide grin grew across his face as she maneuvered the car upwards.

"Where are we going?" He looked at her curiously.

"We're going on a little excursion down to the creek."

"What?" His eyes grew large in amazement as he grasped what she was saying.

"I can't." He shook his head.

Cindy stopped the hover car and turned to face him. Earth and sky converged in a brilliant convergence of robin blue and emerald green as they looked at each other. "Look, there's nothing about this…thing of ours that isn't screwed up. We've made mistakes, we've crossed lines…I almost let years of hard work go to complete waste while you acted like a complete jerk." He tried to protest but she held up a hand to stop him.

"But…that doesn't mean this wasn't worth the struggle." Her voice softened considerably. "I like being around you…Jimmy."

He offered her a small smile upon use of his first name.

"But I think we need some work. You say you don't need people, but you do. You need people as much as I do. As much as anyone. You need people to remind you that nothing is in vain. Nothing is pointless."

After a few seconds, he slowly nodded. "And I want people to see you the way I do. Notwithstanding your period of exceptional cruelty."

"They don't need me." He said quietly. "They never have."

"You don't know that."

He gave her a sad glance. "I am expendable."

"Not tonight. I want you to _try_."

"Cindy—"

"Neutron, I'm not going to lie. You messed me up. But you also helped me in ways no one else could. So…so let me do the same for you."

* * *

><p>The moon hung low in the sky. After a peacefully silent drive, Cindy landed the hover-car safely by some of the other cars and trucks on the bank. She got out of the hover car and waited for Jimmy to do the same. "C'mon Neutron."<p>

He hesitantly jumped out of the car and followed her.

Cindy walked up to Libby with Jimmy in tow and hugged her best friend. Libby was a little taken aback by the sudden show of affection, but she offered Cindy a warm smile. "Hey girl. Nice to see you back." Jimmy hovered behind the two, clearly uncertain. Libby caught him looking at them.

"You brought Neutron?"

"Yeah. Is that a problem?"

Libby laughed. "Of course not, Cindy. I'm just glad to have you back."

Cindy motioned to Jimmy to join the two. "Hi." He awkwardly glanced at Libby.

Libby wasn't looking at him, instead looking towards the hover car.

"Did you really build that?"

"Yeah." He fidgeted with his watch.

"Guess no one really gives you enough credit, Neutron." Libby looked on in wonder. "How do you do any of it? Like that jetpack you wore to class once?"

"Long story."

"I have time."

* * *

><p>Long after the music and lights had died down, Jimmy and Cindy sat side by side near the edge of the creek, dangling their feet into the cool water.<p>

"That wasn't so bad, was it Neutron?"

"That Sheen is a riot…but he's interesting. And so are some of the other people here. Libby wasn't nearly as catty as I thought." Cindy lightly hit his shoulder. "Hey!" He feigned pain.

"That's my best friend we're discussing." She reminded him, a grin playing at the corner of her lips.

"Even Nick isn't that bad. I mean, the kid is talented, even if he ends up on the floor more often than not, attempting tricks on that skateboard. Shame he broke his leg tonight."

Cindy shrugged it off. "No big deal. Happens to him a lot."

Jimmy rolled his eyes.

"You know, I never thought I'd see the day." Cindy smiled. "_Neutron_ had fun at a party."

Jimmy beamed. "Guess we're finally on the same side, huh?"

Cindy rested her head on his shoulder. "There are no sides anymore."

They remained like that for a few minutes. He drunk in her jasmine scent and allowed himself to ponder how lovely she actually was.

"Jimmy?" She gazed up at him tentatively, moving her head from his shoulder.

"Hmm?"

"I was accepted."

A flurry of emotions passed through his head, but he offered her a hand to shake. "Congratulations, Cindy."

She took his outstretched hand and shook it. He regarded her with pride. But Cindy could sense the hollowness in his words. He meant well by his words...he clearly felt happy for her. But there was some fear gravitating at the fringes of his voice.

"Jimmy?" Her own voice came out meek and tame.

"Yes?"

"It...it should have been you."

Jimmy sharply turned his head to face her.

"Cindy, what are you saying?"

"Make no mistake, Jimmy. I'm proud of myself. I worked hard to get this. I deserve this. But you did too, and you know it as well as I do."

She clenched her fists and let out a few ragged breaths as she tried to control the tears gathering in her throat. Cindy hated crying in front of other people. She'd felt so vulnerable, so weak when she'd allowed herself to cry in front of Neutron the last time they'd shared an intimate moment.

"Are you going to go?" The curiosity in his tone pushed her over the edge. _Was there a right answer? One that would make everything alright?_

"I would be crazy not to, right?" She shook her head in disbelief. "And I...I actually felt happy about it today morning. I haven't felt that way in so long. Is that wrong?"

Jimmy could tell she was trying her best to compose herself. He could detect the sheen of tears slowly building like a glass wall over her twin emeralds.

"No. It's not wrong. You said it yourself, Cindy, your hard work merited this."

"It's not just hard work, Neutron!" She spat. "You know that better than anyone else."

Jimmy examined her, a slight trepidation returning to his sapphire eyes.

"And maybe that's okay." He took a deep breath. "When you play dangerous games, the stakes are always high. Rewards aren't always guaranteed."

"What if you don't want rewards? What if you're just asking for a fighting chance, another roll of the dice?" Her voice quivered wildly.

"The die's been cast an infinite number of times for everyone. It's really got more to do with how you choose to proceed with the numbers you roll."

"_You_ didn't roll those numbers. _You_ didn't choose for any of this to be the way it is. We have no agency in our destruction." She protested.

"But we do have agency in our creation. In the creation of our stories, the creation of our selves, our paths."

Cindy sidled up to Jimmy and stared up at the glimmering sky. The obsidian night seemed to swallow their fears whole, replacing them with the glow of burning stars.

"We can always invent a brighter flame for ourselves." Jimmy remarked, taking Cindy's hand.


	11. Epilogue

Cindy sat still in front of a mirror. She carefully applied a light sheen of lip gloss and the slightest hint of blush. Her blonde hair was meticulously curled into an elaborate French twist. She looked down at her watch and then at her reflection, and sighed. It was such a beautiful day...much like one many years ago…

* * *

><p><em>Cindy's royal blue graduation gown billowed around her as she sat down on her knees. She swung open the door of Locker 3141 and gently collected the contents in her arms, placing them carefully into a cardboard box. A wrench...a few sketches drawn on grid paper...an empty can of purple flurp...a few stray pencils...a pair of stolen plastic goggles. She extracted the unreturned chemistry book last. Wedged between the first and second chapter were a few lab reports from the beginning of the year. Each of them boasted a hundred percent. A lump began to grow in Cindy's throat as she caressed the spine of the book and set it at the top of the box. Looking down at the artifacts she'd amassed, she closed her eyes for a minute, allowing the storm of emotions in her heart a moment of respite. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes, everything snapping into focus. The halls around her seemed distorted now...foreign. She'd gone here for four years. Four years, she'd been at this school, and it wasn't until this moment that she realized how quickly those four years had gone. <em>

_Suddenly, a voice called her name, interrupting her reverie."Cindy! Where are you? We have to be outside soon."_

_It was none other than Libby. Libby looked absolutely breath-taking. She'd worn her hair naturally, letting it fan out into an afro around her head. She'd accented her silver eyeliner with a delicate crystal covered headband, and a touch of purple lipstick. Cindy glanced up at her, her own simple look reflecting her straightforward style. Her hair was let loose, and she was wearing a touch of light green eyeshadow. _

_Libby regarded her friend with affection. The two had been friends for as long as she could remember. There was no doubt in her mind that despite everything, their friendship would somehow endure the test of time. _

"_I'm just-" Cindy tried to explain what she was doing, but no words came. Libby looked at the box and understood. She sat down beside her friend and touched her shoulder to offer some modicum of comfort. Cindy rested her head against Libby's shoulder and wept quietly. After a few moments, Libby looked at the clock on the wall across from them. "We should go." She suggested, helping Cindy up. _

_Cindy nodded and picked up the box. She looked at the newly vacant locker over her shoulder one last time, before she turned to Libby. The two girls walked in unison down the hallway and out to the parking lot, where Cindy placed the box of things in the trunk of her car. _

_Sharing a small smile, they made their way towards the football field for their final hurrah._

* * *

><p><em>After a long set of speeches by various administrators, Principal Willoughby stood in front of the mic and called the class valedictorian to the front. Cindy caught her mother's gaze in the bleachers and was surprised to see tears in her mother's eyes. Then again, Cindy supposed, so many things had happened this year, that she could hardly discredit the possibility of anything. <em>

_She made her way up to the mic and stepped up onto the stool behind the podium. She pulled out a sheet of ruled notebook paper from her pocket. It was folded into fourths, and the faint stain of tears covered the margins. _

_Voice shaking, she unfolded the sheet and set it flat out on the podium in front of her. _

"_My fellow graduates, friends," She looked to Libby as she said this, "teachers, faculty, and staff." A slight breeze almost seemed to egg her on. "Over the past four years at Retroville High, we've learned a lot. We've hopefully learned to write good essays and lab reports." She smiled to herself for a second before continuing. "We've learned about Jane Austen, Newton, and Abraham Lincoln. But most importantly…" She took a deep breath before carrying on. "We've learned about ourselves. We've learned about the people we were, the people we are, and the people we want to be."_

_Cindy brushed a tear away from her eyes as she looked down at her neat handwriting and back up at her peers. "I learned so much this year. Some of you might know that I was partnered with a boy named Jimmy Neutron in my chemistry class."_

_A few murmurs went through the crowd as students looked up at her curiously. _

"_We were never friends. We'd never spoken to each other for more than five minutes at a stretch as far as I can remember. But being partnered with him in a chemistry class changed my life. And I know this must sound contrived and…cheesy. Maybe even like some sort of Lifetime movie." She smiled to herself again. _

"_But sometimes you really do meet people who reshape the way you think, the way you live. Jimmy and I didn't get along at all at first. In fact, I even begged my teacher for a new partner." A few chuckles permeated the crowd._

"_We ended up spending a lot of time together. What a lot of you may not have known was that Jimmy wasn't just talented. He was a genius. We knew him by his occasional headlines...his odd antics. And yet it never occurred to us that his tinkering, his malfunctioning jet packs...all indicated some sort of advanced scientific capability. We, being high school students, took it at face value that he was...well quite simply put, just some geek." More murmuring and head-turning spread through the crowd at this revelation. _

_Cindy's throat constrained as she pushed through her speech. _

"_Jimmy and I built a multi-functional robot dog together. For him, the dog was one among many of his amazing inventions. As for me, I didn't even know I could apply the concepts I'd read about in class to something tangible. Jimmy gave me back my creativity...my faith in myself. And we named the dog Goddard."_

_She took a second to gather her thoughts before she pressed on. "Robert H. Goddard was a scientist best known for his creation of the rocket. Now, we call him the father of modern rocketry, but at the time of his discovery, he wasn't very well known. The man who ushered in the very Space Age was barely acknowledged. Similarly, the boy I became friends with was barely recognized as much more than some kid. He deserved to stand here with me and give a lingo-ridden speech like I know he would have. He deserved for the world to know his name. But as I stand here today and look out at all of you...I would like to emphasize from experience…" She trailed off for a second as she met her mother's eye. "Life is about so much more than acknowledgement and merit. Everyone loves a nice trophy or a shiny medal or a coveted acceptance letter. There's so much more than those things though. There's so much more than all of that. The world is full of possibility, hope, and love. Nothing is in vain and-"_

_The dam of emotions inside her finally broke. A few teachers moved to comfort her, but she motioned to them that she was fine. She took a few seconds to compose herself. _

"_We are so full of potential. We are the strength of a thousand stars multiplied times infinity. And so it has come to pass that the die has been cast. We cannot turn back now. We should not turn back now. We are so much more than our GPAS, our social circles, our list of accepted colleges." _

_She took a final look at the students before her, some with watery eyes, and others with the faint hint of optimistic smiles on their lips. _

"_I want to say one last thing. A sentiment Robert H. Goddard might have shared. One I know my friend Jimmy believed in." She closed her eyes and laid her pain to rest for the time being. "The sky is the limit."_

_The crowd exploded in applause. The next few minutes were a blur of hugs, crying, congratulations, rose petals thrown in the air, parents rushing to embrace their beloved children…_

* * *

><p>Cindy felt tears lace her cheeks. She swiftly brushed them away and stood up in her crimson graduation gown. Her roommate ducked out of the bathroom and smiled at Cindy. "Ready?"<p>

Cindy nodded her head. A thousand infinities were waiting for her beyond these doors.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So this is truly it, guys. I hope I've managed to make you feel something for these characters. I know that there were a lot of kinks to work out in terms of romance/friendship pacing and characterization in accordance with JN canon and the _Keith_ universe, but I tried my best. There are a lot of plot points I plan to go back and fix, such as the cliff scene, which upon further reflection, I realized was not something that translated particularly well to the world of Jimmy Neutron. However, I don't regret picking _Keith_ to base this story on. **

**One of the things I really wanted to work with was the idea of Jimmy being overshadowed by Cindy in a sense- _Keith_ offered me a way to incorporate this into a story. The dynamic between Cindy's deserved success and Jimmy's unfair circumstances circled back to one of my personal favorite themes of Jimmy Neutron: Cindy's constant push to academically compete with a genius. Regardless of her intelligence, this proves to be a strain on her, and is clearly unfair for her. We often see her feeling bad about her academic accomplishments on the show because despite how good they might be anywhere else, they're simply not as good as Neutron's. I wanted this story to circle back to that theme of unattainable satisfaction. Jimmy's genius plays a foil to Cindy's hard work and talent in the series, and in this story, his illness plays a foil to his own capability to be better than anyone else his age, Cindy notwithstanding. **

**That being said, I'm not sure if I carried this story out entirely to my own satisfaction. I certainly have a lot of editing to do, and I'm not completely sure if I'm happy with my execution of my ideas and concepts. **

**However, I would like to thank everyone who read this story and took the time to leave comments or reviews or constructive criticism. If you haven't seen the movie, please do! My story doesn't do the original justice. Like I said earlier, the music is also great. **

**A special thank you to quietthinker for all his indispensable advice on this story. As far as stories go, this one won't be a legendary JN classic. But it is my first real multi-chaptered piece of fiction. There are parts of this I'm proud of having written, and other parts that need serious fixing. All in all, I'm just very appreciative of everyone who read and hopefully enjoyed this story. **

**If you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop me a message or let me know via a review. Thank you again, and au revoir for now! **


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